This page contains information on the story and plot of The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and how it relates to the events of Wild Hunt.

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Contrary to some people's beliefs, the games aren’t actually adaptations of the stories told in Andrzej Sapkowski’s books; rather they're more like honorary sequels.

The Setting

The games take place in the various kingdoms of one large unnamed continent. The south is made up of the massive Nilfgaardian Empire, which has steadily been conquering the countries in the north. Only five Northern kingdoms remain at the opening of Witcher 1 - Temeria, Aedirn, Kedwen, Redenia and Kovir, which are almost always at war with one another over something or other.

What is a witcher

Witchers are monster hunters. While they technically start out as humans, they’ve all been genetically mutated via a huge influx of potions, poisons and other elixers - which, if they survive the process, grants them enhanced strength, senses and those cool signature cat eyes of theirs. Combine these mutations with an intensive training regimen and you get a Witcher - a Witcher like Geralt of Rivia, the main character in all three games.

Before the Games

During the events of The Witcher 2, Geralt manages to recover the memories of his life before the original game. Over the course of many years, Geralt had established a reputation of being one of the best Witchers to ever wield a sword. However, as strong as he is, the warrior was felled near the tail end of Nilfgaard’s expansion. Both Geralt and his lady love, sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg, were killed by an angry mob out for non-human blood.

Luckily, their ward - a young but very powerful girl named Ciri - managed to revive them and get them to safety before striking out on her own. Of course, this peace doesn’t last long, as Yennefer is kidnapped by the Wild Hunt - a group of wraith-like warriors who appear to wreak havok and forcibly recruit warriors for its ranks.

Geralt gives chase eventually catches up with the Wild Hunt, and offers to trade his soul for Yen’s - which their leader immediately agrees to. He disappears for five years, only to be rediscoved in a forest outside Kaer Morhen.

The witcher 1

The first game opens with Geralt waking up at Kaer Mohren, one of the last remaining Witcher strongholds, after passing out in the forest with no memory of who he is or where he's been. Upon waking, he’s introduced to fellow Witchers Vessimir, Eskel and Leo, as well as the sorceress Triss Merigold who’s working with Geralt to restore his memories. Before they can make any progress, however, Kaer Mohren is attacked by the a group of bandits called the Salamandra, who steal the potions that make witchers witchers.

Geralt follows the thieves to the city of Vizima and eventually finds out they’re working forJacque D’Aldersberg, the leader of the human supremacist group The Order of the Flaming Rose.  Fearing an oncoming apocalyptic event that he witnessed in a dream, D'Aldersberg plans to use the Witcher's mutagens to breed a race of superhumans that can survive the event and conquer the world.

Geralt kills the thieves and D'Aldersberg, saves the day and gets a hearty clap on the back from his old buddy King Foltest. While Geralt doesn’t get his memory back, he does get a fat sack of gold from the king. The only problem is, as he’s about to leave the king is attacked. Geralt saves him, but it turns out that the assassin is - to Geralt's surprise - another Witcher.

The witcher 2: AssassinS of Kings

Now in the employ of King Foltest - and the arms of Triss Merigold - Geralt helps the king rescue his illegitimate children from a former lover. Unfortunately, since things never go according to plan, the King is murdered by another assassin, who also happened to be a Witcher. Geralt is framed for the murder, thrown in jail, and interrogated by Temerian Supercop Vernon Roche.

After hearing the other side of the story, Roche opts to give Geralt the chance to clear his name and hunt down Foltest’s true killer. The two escape together - along with Triss Merigold - and follow the assassin’s trail to the port town of Flotsam. Here, Geralt reunites with his old friends Zoltan the Dwarf and the bard, Dandelion.

The group runs into Iorveth, a wanted criminal who leads a militant band of nonhuman rebels called the Scoia’tael, a group that wants equal rights with humans. It turns out that Iorveth helped the Witcher assassin to take out Foltest and Demavend - former king of the neighboring country of Aedirn - though it’s soon revealed that the mystery Witcher was only using the Scoia’tael, and had no intention of aiding their cause.

Iorveth and Geralt confront the Assassin but Roche attacks the Scoia’tael and the Kingslayer escapes after a battle with Geralt, taking Triss Merigold as his hostage.

Geralt and Co. follow their trail with either Iorveth or Roche to a battlefield on the Kaedweni-Aeidernian border that’s been put under a curse. If the Witcher goes to Aedirn with Iorveth, they’ll get embroiled in a power struggle for control of the kingdom, and if he follows Roche to Kaedwin he’ll have help King Henselt to solve a spooky ghost mystery.

Either way, Geralt lifts the curse and finds out that the the Assassin of Kings’ true name is Letho, whom he’d actually met on his chase of the Wild Hunt, but had forgotten about because amnesia...an amnesia which is slowly starting to leave him. Letho was hired by the enchantress Sile DeTancerville and select members of the Lodge of Sorceresses - basically a “No Boys Allowed” group of powerful mages who also have managed to mind-control a dragon. They want to use it as leverage for their goal of creating a mage-only nation at a summit being held in Loc Muinne, where Triss Merigold has also been conveniently taken by spies from Nilfgaard.

The plot thickens, however, when Letho appears with an invasion force and reveals that, in actuality, he was only working to destabilize the northern kingdoms for the Nilfgaardian Empire to invade. Geralt manages to either slay the dragon or set it free, rescue Triss, and can either kill or spare both Sile and Letho.

Although he technically stops the Lodge’s plot and saves the day, the northern kingdoms have started to crumble, and the door is open for the onslaught of the Nilfgaardian war machine.